Anaheim, Calif. – Avalanche winger Steve Konowalchuk wasn’t planning on getting too complicated in his first game since suffering torn wrist ligaments in November.
“I won’t be trying the cross-ice pass over a couple of sticks on the tape,” Konowalchuk said at the Avalanche morning skate. “I’ll be getting across the red line and trying to chip it behind their defense and either getting a hit or beating them to the puck.”
He emphasized that he wasn’t going to be tentative.
“Tentative would be if I shied away from going in the corner and not going to the net as hard as I need to to be effective,” Konowalchuk said.
Konowalchuk ended up playing 14:36 in the Game 1 loss, mostly skating on the line with Wojtek Wolski and Jim Dowd and getting some work on the penalty kill.
Giving birth
Ducks forward Todd Fedoruk played Friday despite arriving in Anaheim less than two hours before the game. Fedoruk’s wife, Theresa, gave birth to the couple’s second child earlier in the day in New Jersey.
On a roll
The Ducks have scored 10 unanswered goals dating to their Game 6 victory against Calgary.
Bruno’s big hit
Ducks defenseman Francois Beauchemin, who injured Andrew Brunette with a big second-period hit, was sorry to see the Avs wing sidelined the rest of the game.
“I saw him from across the ice and came over and hit him,” Beauchemin said. “It was just a clean hit, but it (hurt) him pretty bad because he stayed down. You hate to see that happen.”
Footnotes
Teemu Selanne’s goal was his 22nd in the playoffs. … Because of an arena conflict, dates of the sixth and seventh games, if necessary, were switched to May 16 and May 18, with Game 6 at Colorado and Game 7 at Anaheim. … Anaheim right wing Corey Perry was scratched because of a knee injury. … All four meetings between the Avalanche and the Ducks in the regular season were decided by one goal, with Colorado winning three.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
